Elbridge Gerry, Signer of the Declaration from Massachusetts

2 pages (9 1/8 x 7 1/4 in.; 231 x 185 mm) on a bifolium, Marblehead, 20 May 1782, to Minister of War Major General Lincoln at Philadelphia, with autograph address and recipient's docket on integral leaf; some light staining to address leaf, two tiny holes from ink corrosion, integral leaf inlaid to a larger sheet.

2 pages (9 1/8 x 7 1/4 in.; 231 x 185 mm) on a bifolium, Marblehead, 20 May 1782, to Minister of War Major General Lincoln at Philadelphia, with autograph address and recipient's docket on integral leaf; some light staining to address leaf, two tiny holes from ink corrosion, integral leaf inlaid to a larger sheet.
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Elbridge Gerry, recently resigned from Congress, writes to his Massachusetts colleague Benjamin Lincoln for assistance in securing American citizenship for a British friend: "Mr Burgess, the bearer hereof, informing me of his Intention to set off for Philadelphia, (with our Friends Doctor Hatten & Mr. Gorham,) affords me Oppertunity of introducing him to your Acquaintance. … [H]aving applyed to our Court for an Act of naturalization, he is referring to Congress for determining whether he is within the Description of their resolve respecting Subjects of Great Britain.

"I shall be exceedingly happy, if Mr Burgess can be admitted as a Citizen of America, on principles of policy & national Security, because I have the fullest Confidence in his Honor & Integrity, but should his request, in the opinion of Congress, be inadmissible, I flatter myself his reception … will be as hospitable as in this State, & that he will leave America with the fullest Conviction that We wish, altho the Circumstances of the War prevents us from enjoying at present, the pleasure of his Connection." Gerry closes with the expression of his "hope to have the pleasure of seeing you soon in this quarter."

Gerry’s efforts were in vain. William Burgess had petitioned Massachusetts General Court to be naturalized, but his petition was declined and he was allowed to withdraw it. His reception in Philadelphia may well have decided him against petitioning Congress: in correspondence of January 1783, Arthur Lee reiterated to Samuel Adams his recommendation “not to admit any british Subject whatsoever,” while David Ramsay confided to John Eliot that the “present sense of many members is that the stronger evidence a British subject produces of his attachments to America the more fit he would be to bel employed by the enemy” (Letters of Delegates to Congress, ed. Smith, 19:638-40, 531-320).